When I started Brokeman’s Running Company over 5 years ago, I had one mission in mind. To help people take control of their mental health. I’ve always thought endurance exercise, whether it be in the form of running, walking, hiking, or other creative ways you’ve figured out how to move your body and inhale and exhale for a moderately extended period of time, is the best thing that you could possibly do for your brain. (Research tends to point the arrows here as well.) Over the years as I’ve grown into a full fledged adult, I’ve realized that not only does growing up make you feel like you finally have the power to take control of your life, but it also makes you realize you have no idea what you’re doing. And no one is going to tell you how to do it. It’s up to you. That at any time you can completely lose the one thing that you thought you had under control, and since time keeps moving forward with or without you, you have the choice to either get with the program baby, or bail. To give in to the easy way of life, inevitably waiting for the day to come where you “wish you would have when you were younger” or to realize now is that time. The day to grab life by the horns and stop giving in. To take that chance you’ve always wanted to take and see that first step even though you can’t see the whole staircase. Congratulations! Today is your day! You’re off to great places you’re off and away!

 

“They” say that 1 in 5 adults suffer from mental illness. But it’s really hard to buy into that statistic due to the fact that a great amount of adults probably never let anyone know that they themselves, suffer. I, personally, suffer from mental illness. I have my entire life. But when I filled out my voter registration form, I didn’t check a box that said this, so I’m not sure how I would fit into the statistic of 1 in 5. I don’t seek counseling, or take medication, or do anything else that would put me in the category of being the 1, so I’m sure that I’m not the only one who’s a 1 and not a 5. I don’t seek out professional help for my mental health because I do what is so incredibly easy to do these days for anyone with mental illness. I hide, I excuse, I medicate, and I idolatrize, to escape.

 

I hide behind a screen when I don’t want to be social, or even acknowledge my own mind. I make fake promises to my fake friends and groups, and I make fake excuses when I don’t show up for plans that I never intended to keep. I make fake excuses to myself when I think about change with no intentions of taking the hard steps it requires to get there. I medicate with isolation behind a netflix binge, or hours spent scrolling through photos I secretly love to hate or judge. I medicate with a beer or two… after work, in a social setting, after a fight with my husband, or at lunch at home by myself after a stressful morning with my young kids, just to take the edge off. To take the edge off just enough where I don’t have to actually acknowledge the way that I FEEL.  I idolatrize things in my life that I see, putting my full attention into unattainable goals and standards, that I don’t actually give a lick about. I covet photos of other peoples beautiful families and beautiful vacations and beautiful homes on a 4 inch screen in front of my face, while the real things around me go neglected. But I won’t know, as long as I don’t look up.

 

Breath.

 

Today is October 1st. There’s something that I’ve always loved about a new month but today is a little different. Because today, we officially have 3 months left in the year. 91 days left till we wake up on January 1st, ready to finally take charge of our lives and fully commit to the things we’ve been neglecting for the past 25, 35, 60 years. “There’s something so exciting about the New Year. You get to just, start all over. Everybody gets a second chance” (name that movie) But I will be the first one to say that I don’t know if I’ve ever stuck to a New Year’s resolution that I’ve made. So we all just stop making them.

 

Today is October 1st. I really love to plan and try to set myself up for success and today we get the blessing of foresight in knowing that we have 91 days left before we start to finally change our lives. So today I want to start down a 3 month journey of setting up the training plan that will get us to that end goal of the first day of the rest of our lives on January 1st.

 

Over the next 3 months I want to talk to you first and foremost about finding your story. About looking inside of yourself and acknowledging what the reality of your life is. But not just acknowledging your story, but then speaking that story OUT LOUD.  “I want to tell my story. Because, what I would have done if I would have heard a story like mine.” Nanette. We don’t want to feel alone in our stories. I don’t want to share mine, because I don’t want to be judged or put my scary stuff out in the open. But if you are sitting in the circle quietly with your story kept all secret inside, then how many others are doing the same thing. Let’s stop pretending we’re a 5 when our story is that we’re a 1.

 

After we dive into this we are going to spend the next 3 months talking about the following. In no particular order:

 

I want to encourage you to get off of social media. Specifically, Facebook, for the rest of the year.

Yikes.

Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to jump. But know that I will be asking you to take this chance. Not on Facebook? That’s cool. We’ll dig into isolation as a whole.

 

I am going to ask you to get out of yourself, and into service.

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And then I’m going to ask you to look really deeply into yourself.

 

We’re going to work on creating the little habits that are needed now in order to accomplish the jump off the cliff goals later.

 

I am going to be asking you to cut out alcohol at one point for the rest of the year. Not today. Not, binge tonight so I can quit tomorrow. But at some point in this process, just know that that’s going to happen. Alcohol not your thing? Don’t worry. We’ll talk about medicating as a whole.

 

We are going to talk A LOT about Language Arts. Things like the importance of not only the words we DO say, but the words we need to stop saying right now.

 

We are going to dive into our physical and spiritual health, because the trifecta is real.

 

We are going to find out what neural pathways are and why yours need to find new grooves.

 

We are going to finally figure out how to be real with ourselves, and make the hard decisions.

 

We are going to STOP being Broken.

 

Ok so that’s a lot. But don’t worry, I won’t dish it all to you at once. There’s not going to be any starting tomorrow and you suddenly have to wake up an hour early, cut out all sugar and alcohol, and throw away everything your closet that doesn’t bring you joy. (Although some of those things might pop up on the list)  We’re going to take this in steps and we’re going to get through this life, not alone, but together.

 

Doesn’t sound like your bag? Don’t worry, you don’t have to actually DO anything here. So before you say no, why don’t you commit to at least following along with us, opening up your mind a little bit, and seeing what happens. Maybe you’re right and this challenge won’t be for you. And if you come to that decision after you’ve given it a fair shot, then that’s ok. But maybe it’ll be put in your life because you’re supposed to share it in someone else’s. So stick around.

 

So how DO I follow along?

 

Email.

 

I will be sending out a weekly Sunday morning email for the next 3 months with a topic of the week that we are going to work on. I will also be sending out a DAILY email that helps take that weeks topic, break it down, elaborate a little more and encourage practical application in your life.

 

This email will be outside of the regular Brokeman’s Running emails you will get,

so you MUST      

 

                               subscribe to our email list

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As always, please feel free to reach out to me at katie@brokemans.com

 

-Katie